Bangkok Kitchen
Uneven but sometimes delicious Thai food at the Santa Ana / Costa Mesa border
As huge fans of Thai food, we’re always on the lookout for good to great restaurants we haven’t visited before, and thankfully, Orange County always has additional options to explore beyond our sizable collection of prior favorites. Bangkok Kitchen is a prime example: Opened in 2019, it wasn’t on our radar until we went looking for a Thai dinner on a random Friday in mid-2026, discovering the spot in a Santa Ana plaza close to Japanese ramen/yakitori shop Gokumi, Chinese restaurants Little Pan and Six Alley, and the Indian takeout MasalaCraft, less than two miles away from Costa Mesa’s South Coast Plaza. Yet from the moment we walked in, we could sense some differences in the design and vibe of this Thai place.
First, the dining room was cordoned off with stancions, enabling the lone server to physically restrict table access to around 40 guests, with a dedicated bench and waiting aisle for take-out orders. Why? Street people milling around outside the front windows gave us the impression there might have previously been issues with unwanted guests – something that typically hasn’t been an issue at other Thai restaurants we’ve visited around here. We were also somewhat surprised by Bangkok Kitchen’s almost complete lack of Thai decor, a clue that foreshadowed the less traditionally Thai dining experience that was to come.
Bangkok Kitchen’s laminated single-page, double-sided menu is small like Siam Station’s, but with a comparatively larger mix of Americanized choices. Thai appetizers ($13-$17) including curry puffs, crispy tofu, and egg rolls co-exist with cream cheese wontons, “Thai Buffalo Wings,” and french fries mixed with spicy citrus Tom Yum seasoning. Rice dishes ($19 to $20) cover typical Thai bases including spicy basil, garlic pepper, cashew nut, and stir-fried broccoli with your choice of proteins (chicken, pork, tofu), though substituting beef or shrimp adds $2 or $3 to the base prices. Six curries (panang, red, yellow, green, pumpkin, and pineapple) each go for $20 with the same protein and add-on options, while soup ($19 to $22), fried rice ($19 to $23), noodle ($19 to $20) and salad ($18 to $21) options round out the savory menu. Thai coffees and teas, lemonades, and Arnold Palmers each go for $7, with soda cans and bottled water at $4 each, with no wine or beer selections. The only two listed desserts were fried bananas ($13) and mango sticky rice ($17), but the latter wasn’t actually available when we visited.
The only easy way we can summarize our Bangkok Kitchen meal was as a mixed bag. We started with Thai iced tea and Thai lemon tea ($7 each) drinks that we’d previously considered impossible to screw up, but they were each not good – sacchrine sweet milk and something off in the tea base were nearly enough for us to send both of them back, which we never do; we wound up leaving them unfinished. Despite that, the one of us who wanted to try Americanized cream cheese wontons ($16/8) was very happy with the portion size, neat presentation, flavors, and textures of this version. On the other hand, curry puffs ($13) were pretty pricey for only two fairly small appetizers, and though perfectly flaky outside, only lightly and very mildly stuffed inside. Similarly, spicy beef salad ($21) – a Thai classic we’ve enjoyed countless times elsewhere – arrived here as the most Americanized version we’ve ever received: Plated as more of a Western salad with carrots and cabbage at least as prominent as cucumbers, tomatoes, and cilantro, the bowl had little dressing, modest citrus flavor, practically no spice, and the driest beef we’ve ever tasted in this dish.
Good entrees were the only reason we considered ordering dessert. Pad see ew ($19) was an ample portion of properly smoky flat noodles in a soy glaze, balanced nicely with both thin-sliced pork and broccoli – a little oily from stir-frying, but tasty and filling. Pumpkin curry ($20) arrived as a large bowl that had nothing besides sauce, a good handful of sliced pork, and at least as much chunked pumpkin inside. While there was too little in the bowl, what was there was very tasty; the pumpkin-infused red curry was delicious enough to turn a small portion of white jasmine rice into a filling complement.
Overall, we didn’t enjoy our Bangkok Kitchen experience enough to want to give it another shot in the future. If that changes for whatever reason, we’ll update this article with additional details and pictures.
Stats
Price: $$-$$$
Service: Table
Open Since: 2019
Address
136 W. MacArthur Blvd.
Santa Ana, CA 92707
657.235.8055
Instagram: @bk_bangkokkitchen